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Showing posts with label Richard Hall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Hall. Show all posts

Sunday, 18 March 2018

Letter from a group of British investigators to the Portuguese Public Prosecutor, about the Madeleine McCann Case


17.3.18


https://gazetadigitalarquivo.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/letter-from-group-of-british.html





From: The Madeleine McCann Research Group
28 February 2018
To: Exma Sra. Procuradora-Geral da República,
Drª Joana Marques Vidal
Rua da Escola Politécnica, 140
1269-269 LISBOA
PT P O R T U G A L

Dear Drª Joana Marques VidalTo:


re: The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann: New evidence of what happened to her


We are a group of mainly British researchers. Most of us have studied the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in depth for the past 10 years. Our members and researchers include many people with professional expertise, such as ex-police officers, lawyers, photographers, computer experts and statement analysts.


On 10 September 2007, Chief Inspector Tavares de Almeida, on behalf of the Policia Judiciara, produced an interim (‘intercalary’) report summarising the police’s case against Madeleine’s parents, Dr Gerald and Dr Kate McCann (6):


The conclusions in Tavares de Almeida’s report


This is an English translation of the conclusions reached by the PJ’s investigation up to and including 10 September 2007:


QUOTE


From everything that we have discovered, our files result in the following conclusions:


A. the minor Madeleine McCann died in Apartment 5A at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, on the night of 3 May 2007


B. a simulation - a staged hoax - of an abduction took place


C. in order to render the child’s death impossible before 10.00pm, a situation of checking of the McCann couple’s children while they slept was concocted


D. Dr Gerald McCann and Dr Kate McCann are involved in the concealment of the corpse of their daughter, Madeleine McCann


E. at this moment, there seems to be no strong indications that the child’s death was other than the result of a tragic accident, yet;


F. from what has been established up to now, everything indicates that the McCann couple, in self-defence, did not want to deliver up Madeleine’s corpse immediately and voluntarily, and there is a strong possibility therefore that it was moved from the initial place where she died. This situation may raise questions concerning the circumstances in which the death of the child took place.


G. Therefore, we suggest that the case files are sent to the Republic’s Prosecutor, in the Lagos legal district, for:


1) possible new questioning of the arguidos Dr Gerald and Dr Kate McCann, and
2) an evaluation of the measure of restraint to be applied in this case.


During the house search at the McCann couple’s residence, a diary style manuscript was found, already photocopied, possibly authored by Dr Kate McCann; admitting that it may contain information that may help to reach the material truth of facts.


We therefore propose that the photocopies of the said document are presented to the illustrious judge for the purpose of its apprehension (if legal), its translation and eventual collection of information to be included in the files, as necessary for the investigation.


At this date, I submit the case files for your appreciation, for you to determine whatever you may see as convenient.


10 September 2007 Chief Inspector Tavares de Almeida


UNQUOTE




The research that we have undertaken – and that of many others both here, in Portugal, and elsewhere – leads us to support all of the above conclusions in Tavares de Almeida’s report – except for one.


We noted that when the report of the Policia Judiciara was archived in July 2007, it was said that the case would be re-opened if ‘new and credible evidence’ was received by the Portuguese authorities. The case was re-opened in the PJ’s Oporto office in 2013. Our letter contains evidence which we believe they should see and act on.


As a result of painstaking research by many people, we believe that we are now in a position to supply you with new and credible evidence on one matter (the date of death) covered in the first point of Tavares de Almeida’s report, namely: “Conclusion A. the minor Madeleine McCann died in Apartment 5A at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, on the night of 3 May 2007”.


We are satisfied that we can now provide sufficient evidence to show that the minor Madeleine McCann died not on the night of Thursday 3rd May, but instead died between Sunday afternoon (29th April) and Monday afternoon (30th April).


The remainder of this letter sets out in brief summary the evidence which we suggest points clearly to Madeleine having died on the Sunday or Monday that week. We will present the evidence under these seven headings:


A large number of false statements were made at the outset, containing a huge amount of fabricated evidence. These added credibility to the McCanns’ claim that Madeleine had been abducted on Thursday 3 May. They diverted the PJ investigation into believing that Madeleine was still alive that day.


The photograph of Madeleine McCann, Dr Gerry McCann and Amelie, taken by the Ocean Club pool.


The absence of photographs of Madeleine taken after Sunday. (7)


The fabricated statement of Nuno Lourenco, who tried to identify Wojchiech Krokowski as a potential child-kidnapper who had tried to abduct his daughter on Sagres beach. (3) (8) (9) (10) (11)


The unreliable evidence of the children’s nanny (and McCann family friend), Catriona Baker, Dr Gerry McCann and Dr Kate McCann about an alleged ‘high tea’ at the Ocean Club Tapas restaurant, at about 5pm to 6pm on Thursday 3 May. (12)


The lack of any credible, independent evidence by anybody that Madeleine McCann was seen alive after Sunday 29th April. (7) (13)


The mystery of the strange ‘Make-Up Photo’ of Madeleine, which appears to have been taken on Sunday 29th April, (5) (14) (15) and


Clear photographic evidence that the very same pyjamas Madeleine had with her on holiday in Praia da Luz were later held up by the McCanns at two press conferences, one in London on 5th June 2007, the other in Amsterdam, Holland, on 7th June 2007. (16) (17)


In presenting our evidence, we wish to emphasise that we are in no way critical of the PJ investigation. On the contrary, we believe it was diligently and brilliantly pursued in almost impossible circumstances, namely the determination of the British government and media to insist that Madeleine had been abducted. It is our case that the abduction hoax was skillfully crafted over a period of four days, and was so designed as to deliberately mislead the PJ. Only after years of patiently unravelling the evidence and exposing the deceit has it been possible to arrive at our conclusion that Madeleine was probably dead 3 to 4 days before Thursday 3 May.


Before detailing our evidence on these points, we would like to make the following observations on the conclusions of Tavares de Almeida and of Dr Gonçalo Amaral in his book, A Verdada da Mentira, ‘The Truth of the Lie’. (18)


The PJ’s evidence about the alleged ‘high tea’ with Madeleine and her parents on the afternoon of Thursday 3 May


In Tavares de Almeida’s report (6), he states the following about the events of the evening of Thursday 3 May:


QUOTE


“But there is another question about the timing which is this: The last time that the child was seen outside of the group, by someone who can prove they saw her, was at around 5.35pm, when the parents went to pick her up at the crèche.


“This may widen the time lapse between Madeleine’s ‘disappearance’ and the alarm being raised into more than four hours”.


UNQUOTE


This is paralleled by two short passages in Goncalo Amaral’s book ‘The Truth of the Lie’. Here is an English translation (by Anna Silvestro) of the relevant paragraphs (18):


QUOTE


(1st passage) “On the fateful day of May 3rd, the attendance register at the play centre indicates that Madeleine arrived at 9.10, accompanied by her father. Her mother came to fetch her at 12.25 for lunch and took her back at 2 o'clock. After jogging on the beach and going to fetch the twins, she collected Maddie at 5.30pm. From that moment on, no other person saw the little girl, apart from her parents and their friends. What happened then in the apartment remains a mystery”.


(2nd passage) “THE INTERROGATIONS


“We finally decide to question [Kate McCann[ as a witness, but not to pose questions on the events after 5.30pm, the time at which she returned to the apartment with her three children.


A DISAPPEARANCE, A WINDOW AND A BODY


“It is now important to present a summary of this case, based on our deductions: reject what is false, throw out what we can't show with sufficient certainty and validate that which can be proven. Point 5. The body, the existence of which has been confirmed by the EVRD and CSI dogs, but also by the results of the preliminary laboratory analyses, cannot be found. The conclusions my team and I have arrived at are the following:
1. The minor, Madeleine McCann died inside apartment 5A of the Ocean Club in Vila da Luz, on the night of May 3rd 2007;
2. Kate Healy and Gerald McCann were probably involved in the concealment of their daughter's body.
3. The death may have occurred as a result of a tragic accident…”


UNQUOTE


We will present evidence that Madeleine was not present at that ‘high tea’, (4) (13) that the ‘high tea’ never happened, and that there is no credible, independent evidence that Madeleine was seen alive after lunchtime on Sunday 29th April. (4) (13)


The two descriptions of an abductor by Jane Tanner and Nuno Lourenco


We will also make observations on another matter. That is the descriptions given of an abductor to the PJ by the McCanns’ friend, Jane Tanner, during Friday, 4th May, and a second description of a child kidnapper by Nuno Lourenco, early the following day (Saturday 5th November).


This is what Tavares de Almeida says about the claims of Jane Tanner (6):


QUOTE


“Later, during the course of the morning of May 4th, the father gives the same brief description [as Jane Tanner did] and refers back to Jane for additional details. The latter [Jane tanner] appears at the offices of the Policia Judiciara in Portimão at 11.30am. This time, the description is very precise:
the individual, aged between 35 and 40, was thin and 1.70m tall;
his hair was dark brown, falling over his collar;
he was wearing cream or beige trousers, probably linen,
a sort of anorak - but not very thick –
and black shoes, classic in style.
He was walking hurriedly, with a child in his arms. He was warmly dressed, the reason she thought he was not a tourist. The child appeared to be asleep - she only saw the legs - had bare feet and was dressed in pyjamas, which were obviously cotton, light-coloured, probably white or pale pink, with a pattern - flowers maybe, but she isn't certain. Concerning the man, she states that she would recognise him from the back by his particular way of walking. The importance of this statement will be seen later”.


UNQUOTE


Now we come to a description of a man given by Nuno Lourenco to the PJ on the morning of Saturday 5th May (8) (9) (10). He said this man tried to kidnap his daughter outside a café in the village of Sagres, on Sunday 30th April (8). As we now know from the PJ’s investigations during that Saturday, they identified the man as Wojchiech Krokowski, (9) (10) (18) a Polish man who was on holiday in Praia da Luz in the very same week that the McCanns were also staying there. This is what Gonçalo Amaral says in his book about Nuno Lourenco’s claims (18):


QUOTE


“From information from Sagres, we learn that an individual has been surprised on Mareta beach taking photos of several children and in particular of a little girl aged 4, blonde with blue eyes, who looks like Madeleine. It was the little girl's father who noticed him. This 40 year-old man, wearing glasses, tells the investigators that the photographer tried to kidnap his daughter in the afternoon of April 26th in Sagres.


“He allegedly then fled in a hired car with a woman in the passenger seat. The stranger did not look like a tourist; brown hair down to his collar, wearing cream-coloured trousers and jacket and shoes of a classic style. This report reminds us of the individual encountered by Jane Tanner in the streets of Vila da Luz on the evening of Madeleine's disappearance.


“Thanks to the father's composure, he managed to take a photograph of the vehicle. It's not very clear and does not allow us to make out the number plate, but we succeed, nonetheless, in finding the car. The car hire firm provides us with the identity of the driver. He is a forty-year-old Polish man, who is traveling with his wife. They arrived in Portugal on April 28th, from Berlin. At Faro airport, they hired a car and were put up in an apartment in Budens, near Praia da Luz. Unfortunately, on May 5th, at 7am, they had already left, taking with them their camera and all the photos from their holiday. We ask the German police, through Interpol, to monitor them as soon as they arrive in Berlin. All the passengers are questioned, but no one has seen a child looking like Madeleine. In Berlin, the couple take the train to return to Poland. Thus, the Polish trail comes to an end. We would like to have seen their photos...but that proved impossible”.


UNQUOTE


As can be clearly seen, Gonçalo Amaral and his team of PJ detectives clearly believed that the man seen by Nuno Lourenco at Sagres on Sunday 30th April was the same man that Jane Tanner had seen at around 9.15pm on Thursday 3rd May (19) (20)near the McCanns’ apartment. All the following descriptions were identical:
age of the man (35-40, or 40)
hair brown or dark brown
hair ‘down to’ or ‘falling over’ his collar
cream-coloured trousers
‘jacket’ or ‘anorak’
-shoes of a classic style
“didn’t look like a tourist” (because of wearing ‘warm clothes’).


In this letter we will present evidence that:
Nuno Lourenco’s statement was a complete fabrication
Jane Tanner’s statement was also a complete fabrication
The descriptions given were so similar that they provide the strongest possible evidence that they were planned well before Thursday, and
There was collusion between Jane Tanner, Nuno Lourenco and others to fake the existence of an abductor (3) (9) (10).


EVIDENCE OF DEATH ON SUNDAY OR MONDAY – 1. A large number of false statements were made at the outset, containing a huge amount of fabricated evidence. These added credibility to the McCanns’ claim that Madeleine had been abducted on Thursday 3 May. They diverted the PJ investigation into believing that Madeleine was still alive that day.


As the PJ concluded, we agree that a hoax abduction was ‘staged’. We also agree that the furniture in the McCanns’ apartment was pre-arranged on Thursday 3 May to fake an abduction scenario. All this needed the co-operation of the McCanns and all of their Tapas 7 friends.


We also entirely agree with the PJ’s evidence (see Tavares de Almeida’s report) that there were:
multiple contradictions between the evidence of the witnesses
multiple changes of story by the chief witnesses, and
that the McCanns would adapt their narrative as new embarrassing facts emerged.


In fact much more evidence of these contradictions and changes of story has emerged since Gonçalo Amaral was removed from the PJ investigation on 2 October 2007. To take one example from Gonçalo Amaral’s book; he correctly identified that the accounts of Dr David Payne visiting Kate McCann in Apartment 5A were contradictory. We have since discovered a total of at least 20 contradictions as between their two versions of what happened. (21) We hold that this is more than sufficient to prove that the alleged ‘visit’ was fabricated.

Three individuals in particular led the PJ investigation and Gonçalo Amaral to conclude that Madeleine must have died after 5.30pm on Thursday 3 May: Jane Tanner, Nuno Lourenco and Catriona Baker, the children’s nanny.


We deal with the evidence of Nuno Lourenco and Catriona Baker below. Here we summarise why the evidence of Jane Tanner should be treated as wholly unreliable – as the PJ team itself soon recognised:


She and her husband Russell O’Brien were close friends of the McCanns. That means she is not an independent witness
On Sunday 13 May she was adamant that the man she claimed to have seen, carrying a bundle or a child, at around 9.15pm on Thursday 3 May, was Robert Murat. This identification of him by Jane Tanner was a major reason why Murat was pulled in for questioning two days later (18)
It has since become clear that in the hours before she was placed in a police van by the PJ, in order to see if she could identify the man she claimed to have seen, she was spoken to by a senior Leicestershire police officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Small, and two staff from the British government-funded security agency, Control Risks Group (22). It is reasonable to suspect that these three people influenced Jane Tanner to make a false claim that she ‘recognised’ Robert Murat
In his book on the case, Goncalo Amaral refers to the sudden arrival in Portugal of large numbers of British government, police and security personnel – staff from the Foreign Office, the British Embassy, Leicestershire Police, Scotland Yard, MI5, Special Branch, the National Police Improvement Agency, CEOP and Control Risks Group. Amaral records in his book the following (18):


QUOTE

“FOR THE PROFILERS, MURAT IS THE GUILTY PARTY


“Since Murat's first interview, which they attended, the specialists have continued to refine the profile of the suspect [Robert Murat]…according to the English profilers, there is a 90% chance that he is the guilty party…”


UNQUOTE


From all the above, we say there is clear evidence of a plot to ‘frame’ Robert Murat and persuade the PJ to question him and make him a formal suspect, an ‘arguido’. And this is exactly what happened on Tuesday 15 May (18).
In October 2007, the McCann Team released an artist’s sketch of the man said to have been seen by Jane Tanner. It was drawn up by a ‘forensic artist’, Melissa Little. She was employed by Cheshire businessman, Brian Kennedy, who directed the McCann Team’s highly controversial private investigation. The sketch did not look like Robert Murat.
Later, in January 2008, there was a major news story in the British press about a man with ‘straggly hair’ and a moustache, said by both the McCann Team and Leicestershire Police to be a new ‘chief suspect’. (20) (21) (22) (23) The McCanns’ PR agent, Clarence Mitchell (who at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance was the head of the British government’s Media Monitoring Unit), held a special ‘police-style press conference’ to promote this new suspect. Once again, Melissa Little drew the artist’s sketch that was presented to the media. In some respects, the sketch resembled the earlier sketch drawn up by Jane Tanner. Jane Tanner was quoted in the British press as saying she was ‘80% sure’ that the man she said she had seen on 3 May was the same as the man with the straggly hair and the moustache. This was despite the facts that (a) she frankly admitted that she had never seen the face of the man on 3 May and (b) the man with the straggly hair and the moustache looked nothing like Robert Murat.
Also in January 2008, Jane Tanner admitted that she was ‘no longer sure’ that the man she had seen on 3 May was Robert Murat (29) (30) (31).
This admission was important because, in the two days after Robert Murat was made a formal suspect, three friends of the McCanns (Fiona Payne, Russell O’Brien and Rachael Oldfield) all made statements to the PJ claiming that they had seen Robert Murat near the McCanns’ apartment on the night of 3 May. Yet eight months later (January 2008), they admitted that they might have been ‘mistaken’. (18)
10. One more indication that Jane Tanner’s claims were false came in a press conference held by the McCann Team in August 2009 (28). This conference was held in order to promote the McCanns’ latest theory, that Madeleine had been abducted by a woman, on a yacht bound from Barcelona to Australia. In order to promote this theory, the McCanns’ latest chief private investigator, former Detective Sergeant, Dave Edgar, said that Jane Tanner might have been mistaken and that she saw a female carrying a child, not a male.
11. Finally, we add that on 14 October 2013, around 7 million people in Britain watched a TV programme about Madeleine’s disappearance, made by the BBC together with the Metropolitan Police (27). They had together spent over £2 million making this film. In the film, the Metropolitan Police chief investigator, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, said that the man seen by Jane Tanner had ‘come forward’. He told us that the man’s daughter had been in the ‘night creche’ on 3 May and that he had carried his daughter, clad only in her pyjamas, back to wherever he was staying that night.
12. There were many reasons to doubt DCI Redwood’s claims (27), for example:
why had this man kept silent for 6 years?
if the man had been walking past the McCanns’ apartment that night from the crèche, maps showed that he was not taking the direct route from the crèche but must have gone a longer way around
we were not given the identity of the man; only a blurred photograph, said to be of this man, was shown
we were told that (i) he had been wearing exactly the same sort of clothes on holiday as those described by Jane Tanner (ii) his daughter had been wearing very similar pyjamas to those worn by Madeleine on that holiday and (iii) that he had for some unknown reason kept these very pyjamas for 6 years
there is no explanation of (i) where the mother of this child was whilst the man was carrying her home in the dark on a cold evening (only 13 deg C) (ii) why he was not using a buggy and (iii) why his daughter was only in pyjamas, with no covering over her.
In short, none of the dozens of serious Madeleine McCann researchers in Britain believes that DCI Redwood was telling the truth. We believe it was yet another lie by the British police to continue the claim that Madeleine was abducted, when she was not.


EVIDENCE OF DEATH ON SUNDAY OR MONDAY – 2. The photograph of Madeleine McCann, Dr Gerry McCann and Amelie, taken by the Ocean Club pool


One of the most famous photographs of Madeleine is one of her, her sister Amelie, and her father Dr Gerry McCann, sitting by the Ocean Club pool. They said that this photograph was taken by her mother, Dr Kate McCann, on the last day of their holiday, Thursday 3rd May, at about 2.29pm.


We will present a summary of evidence below which suggests that this was a deliberate lie by the McCanns and by those supporting them (4) (32) (33) (34) . We will show that this photograph was almost certainly taken on Sunday, 29th April at lunch-time. (4) (33) We will also show that this was the last photograph of Madeleine ever taken, with the possible exception of what we will call the ‘Make-Up Photo’ - see below (14) (15). Further, we will show that there is no credible, truly independent evidence that Madeleine was alive after the afternoon of Sunday 29th April (13). From these conclusions we will also suggest that it is unlikely that Madeleine’s death was ‘accidental’ (as suggested in the PJ’s report) and we will also suggest that Madeleine’s parents had professional help from the highest levels of the British government in order to ‘stage’ an abduction (the PJ’s own conclusion) and to help keep up the ‘myth’ of Madeleine being abducted for over 10 years (2) (4) (5).


The specific evidence relating to the ‘Last Photo’ is as follows:


The photograph is said to have been taken by Kate McCann. Two acknowledged experts in digital photography have examined this photograph in detail and both, independently, agreed that it was a genuine photograph with no signs of alteration or ‘photoshopping’ (33)
The experts also pointed out, however, that it was a relatively simple matter to change the date and time stamp, to try to prove that a photograph was taken on a different date from the actual date (33)
On 9 May, Dr Gerry McCann and a close relative, Michael Wright, presented to the PJ two computer disks which purported to show all the photos taken on the holiday by the McCanns and their friends, the Paynes. These disks included three photographs of Madeleine happily playing in the Ocean Club playground on the first day of the holiday (Saturday 28th April). But for reasons which have not been explained by the McCanns, these two disks did not include the ‘Last Photo’. (4)
Furthermore, it is clear from the PJ files that the two computer disks of photos were compiled with the additional help of Alex Woolfall, the Head of Risk, employed by the huge PR firm, Bell Pottinger. He has admitted this. It is unclear why the ‘Head of Risk’ at a major public relations firm should need to sort through the McCanns’ holiday photographs (4) (33) [NOTE: We add here the following information: 1. Sir Tim Bell, former Chairman of Bell Pottinger, admitted that the McCanns paid him over £600,000 to ‘keep their name on the newspaper front pages for a year’, and 2. This year, Bell Pottinger collapsed, and is now ‘in administration’, following revelations about a campaign of lies they conducted in South Africa to back up the discredited President, Jacob Zuma. The firm, and those who run it, have been totally discredited. Bell Pottinger also received huge payments from various corrupt regimes and individuals they worked for in different parts of the world]
The weather when the photo was taken This is a crucial evidential point that the PJ had no opportunity to consider. At lunch-time on Thursday 3 May, the weather was cloudy and cool (17 deg C). This can be demonstrated from assorted weather records and photographs. By contrast, the weather on Sunday lunchtime (29th April) was sunny and very warm (21 deg C). By Monday, a cold front had already brought cooler and cloudier weather with some rain. This lasted until Friday (4) (33).
Now we need to look at the evidence of the photo itself. This is what we observe:
bright sunshine
no evidence of any wind
three people sitting by the pool, dipping their feet in the pool
Dr Gerry McCann wearing T-shirt and shorts
Madeleine and Amelia wearing light clothing
Madeleine and Amelie both wearing sun-hats
a sheen of perspiration on Gerry McCann’s forehead
Gerry McCann wearing sunglasses (4) (33).
None of these features match the claim that this photograph was taken on Thursday 3rd May. They all match, however, with the only sunny and warm day of the holiday: Sunday 29th April.
The photograph was not produced by the McCanns until Thursday 24 May. Why, when it was already in the McCanns’ camera, was it not produced straightaway, when the police and the press required the most up-to-date photo of Madeleine?

EVIDENCE OF DEATH ON SUNDAY OR MONDAY – 3. The absence of photographs of Madeleine taken after Sunday.


Only five photographs of Madeleine on that holiday are claimed to exist.


We have mentioned four of them:
There were three photographs of Madeleine taken on the Saturday. Dr Gerry McCann handed these to the PJ on 9 May 2007
There is the ‘Last Photo’, which the McCanns say was taken on Thursday 3rd May. However, we have shown that it must have been taken on Sunday 29th April.


That leaves just one other photo which the McCanns claim was taken on that holiday: the so-called ‘Tennis Balls Photo’, which purports to show Madeleine clutching some tennis balls.


There are numerous problems with this photo (35) (36 (37). The main four are:


Two different people are said to have taken it (Kate McCann and Jane Tanner)
They claim they were taken on two different days (Tuesday and Thursday), and
The improbability of Kate McCann’s account (in her 2011 book, ‘madeleine’) of how the photograph came to be taken (she writes of how she ran back to her apartment to get her camera, while Madeleine was apparently there, waiting for this photograph to be taken
The photograph appears inconsistent with what is said by Kate McCann. There are no other children in shot. There are no children’s nannies or tennis coaches in shot, the balls that the girl in the photo is holding are adult balls, not the soft balls that children would use when playing mini-tennis.


Furthermore, there is no independent witness (such as a crèche nanny or tennis coach) of how and when this photograph is supposed to have been taken.

In addition, some observers have noted that whilst the head of the girl in the photograph is clearly that of Madeleine, the body of the girl looks different from Madeleine in a number of ways. Notably the girls’ legs look sturdier, as if they are of an older girl, and her arms and legs have a number of marks, possibly bruises and scratches, and look red and sunburnt when compared with the pale skin of Madeleine, as seen on the three photographs of Madeleine on Saturday, and the ‘Last Photo’ which we are sure was taken on the Sunday. (4) (35) (36) (37)


Therefore we have no proof of any photograph of Madeleine being taken on the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday that week. That is wholly consistent with our case that Madeleine died on the Sunday.


We should add that a Mr Philip Edmonds, a Director of Stemcor, the international steel company, was on holiday that week with his three sons, and claimed to have taken a photograph of his three sons playing in the Ocean Club playground, on Thursday 3rd May, showing Madeleine McCann in the background. He further claimed publicly that he had sent this photograph to the PJ. However, no such photograph appears in the PJ files, not has it been published elsewhere. There is every reason to doubt whether – even if he has supplied such a photograph – that it could prove that Madeleine was alive that day (38).


EVIDENCE OF DEATH ON SUNDAY OR MONDAY – 4. The fabricated statement of Nuno Lourenco, who tried to identify Wojchiech Krokowski as a potential child-kidnapper who had tried to abduct his daughter on Sagres beach.


Nuno Lourenco claimed he was living in Germany but had been over to Sagres for a short holiday to see his mother, who still lives in the area. (8)


Early on Saturday 5th May, he contacted the PJ to say that a man had been photographing children (including his own) on Sagres beach during the afternoon of Sunday 29th April (although Goncalo Amaral gives a different date for this in his book). (8) (18)


Nuno Lourenco provided a photograph in support of his claims. He said that he had managed to take a photograph of the man on his mobile ’phone before he drove away. He also gave the police the last four digits of the car registration number of the vehicle. (8)


With this information, the Portuguese police were able to establish that the owner of the car was a car rental agency based in Burgau, and that the car had been rented for the week by a Mr Wojchiech Krokowski. Krokowski and his wife had been holidaying at an apartment in the Sol e Mar building in Burgau. The police later established further details about Krokowski and his wife from the owner or manager of the Burgau Beach Bar (believed to be Mr Ralph Eveleigh or his manager), a CCTV in a shop in Lisbon, and the Polish Police. (8) (18)


It is clear from what we said in our introduction that Gonçalo Amaral and his PJ team believed that Nuno Lourenco had identified the same man as seen by Jane Tanner. (18)


If we now compare the descriptions by Jane Tanner (of the man she said she saw) and by Nuno Lourenco (of the man we now know to have been Wojchiech Krokowski), the similarities are astonishing, as we now set out in this table:


Jane Tanner description of the man Lourenco description of Krokowski


aged between 35 and 40 aged 40
dark brown hair, falling over his collar brown hair down to his collar
wearing cream or beige trousers wearing cream-coloured trousers
wearing black shoes in the classic style shoes of a classic style
warmly dressed, the reason she did not look like a tourist
thought he was not a tourist


We make these observations on Nuno Lourenco’s statement (3):
The account he gives of the attempted kidnap lacks credibility in several respects:
why would a holidaymaker, with his car apparently parked some way away outside the village, attempt (in broad daylight) to kidnap a child?
why are there no other witnesses to this incident?
his account of how he tried to take a photo of Krokowski, but failed because his finger was blocking the viewfinder, also lacks credibility
his account of what actually happened inside and outside the café also does not have the ‘ring of truth’ about it
he did not report what (if true) must have been a frightening incident to the police until six days later
he laid great emphasis on how the date and time stamp on his mobile ’phone ‘proved’ that the photograph of Krokowski’s car was taken around 6pm on Sunday 29th April. This reminds us of another photograph, the ‘Last Photo’, was said to have been taken on Thursday 3 May, according to the date stamp, yet evidence suggests that it was taken four days earlier. We suggest that it is likely in all the circumstances that Lourenco took this photograph later in the week, but date-stamped it to fool the PJ team into thinking it was taken on the Sunday
he did not ’phone the police until six days later, and waited until after Jane Tanner had given her statement to the police
moreover, he waited until around the time that the plane taking Krokowski and his wife back to Poland was taking off from faro Airport. This seems to us like more than a coincidence (9) (10).


Taking all these matters into account, and having regard also to the astonishing coincidences between the descriptions given by Jane Tanner (of the man) and Nuno Lourenco (of Wojchiech Krokowski), we arrive at these very disturbing conclusions:
Jane Tanner and Nuno Lourenco were describing the same man – Wojchiech Krokowski
The description must therefore have been based on Wojchiech Krokowski and what he was wearing that week
Either Jane Tanner and Nuno Lourenco must have colluded in order to give police identical descriptions, OR at least one third party must have planned this collusion, and given them instructions on what to say to the police (3).


This means that Jane Tanner, Nuno Lourenco, and any or all people who colluded in deceiving the police in this way have committed the offence (in English law) of perverting the course of justice. In English law this offence attracts the maximum penalty of 14 years.


[ NOTE: We add here the strange matter of the evidence of three members of the Smith family, who claimed to have seen a man carrying a girl dressed only in pyjamas at about 10.00pm on Thursday 3 May. What is astonishing is that when they travelled to Portugal to give their statements on 26 May, they also gave an almost identical description of the man they claimed they saw to those given by Jane Tanner and Nuno Lourenco.


The Smiths also described a man ‘about 35-40’, ‘wearing cloth clothes’, ‘wearing classic shoes’, and who ‘didn’t look like a tourist’. The girl he was carrying was also dressed only in white/pink pyjamas.


If we are correct in asserting that Madeleine was probably dead on Sunday, then what possible explanation can there be for him reporting seeing someone, at about 10.00pm on Thursday 3rd May, identical to the descriptions of a man given by Jane Tanner and Nuno Lourenco?


It raises a realistic possibility that this was also a fabrication, and that Martin Smith and his family were also using the same description of Wojchiech Krokowski.


We may add that on 20th September 2007, nine days after seeing TV footage of Gerry McCann carrying his son Sean down the steps of an aeroplane, Martin Smith claimed (with 60% to 80% certainty] that the man he said he had seen on 3rd May was Gerry McCann. Yet despite that, he admits to having been contacted by Mr Brian Kennedy, head of the McCanns’ private investigation, in December 2007, and since then has clearly been working with the McCanns, making public statements sympathising with the McCanns and urging the public to ‘look for the abductor’ ]. (3)


EVIDENCE OF DEATH ON SUNDAY OR MONDAY – 5. The unreliable evidence of the children’s nanny, Catriona Baker, Dr Gerry McCann and Dr Kate McCann about an alleged ‘high tea’ at the Ocean Club Tapas restaurant, at about 5pm to 6pm on Thursday 3 May.


The crucial evidence that Madeleine was still alive at 5.30pm on Thursday 3rd May came from one of the nannies, Catriona Baker (39) (40) (41). She was also the crèche nanny for Madeleine’s daytime group, the ‘Lobsters’. Both Tavares de Almeida and Gonçalo Amaral in his book were certain that she was telling the truth, and that, because she was thought to be an ‘independent’ witness, they could rely on her word (18).


Detailed investigation, however, has uncovered a mass of contradictions as between the four main witnesses who gave evidence about this alleged ‘high tea’ on the Thursday afternoon: Dr Gerry McCann, Kate McCann, and crèche nannies Catriona Baker and Charlotte Pennington (12). These contradictions have been analysed by many Madeleine researchers. All have come to the conclusion that the contradictions are so many and so serious that it is highly doubtful that this ‘high tea’ happened at all. It is simply not possible to accept Catriona Baker as a witness of truth.


Furthermore, research has uncovered the fact that Catriona Baker probably knew the McCanns before this holiday (4).


Records on the social media group Facebook show that Catriona Baker was, in 2006 and possible before then, a Facebook friend of Chloe Corner. Chloe Corner is the daughter of Madeleine’s godfather, Jon Corner. Jon Corner was highly involved in events after Madeleine was reported missing. Within hours, he was seemingly able to send unlimited photos of Madeleine to the media, from his home in Liverpool. In addition, Jon Corner said he had been to Praia da Luz several times previously, suggesting a connection with the village. Jon Corner also lived with the McCanns for around a week in August 2007, during which time he took them to Huelva to distribute leaflets about Madeleine. He made a film about Madeleine which was later used by Panorama for their programme about Madeleine shown on 19 November 2017 (4).


In November 2007, six months after Madeleine was reported missing, Catriona Baker visited the McCanns in Rothley, staying with them for a number of days. There are also indications from Kate McCann’s account of Catriona Baker in her book, ‘madeleine’, that she may have known her already, although she does not admit to this (4).


These connections of Catriona Baker to Jon Corner and the McCanns were not known to the PJ team nor to Gonçalo Amaral. If they had been, they would certainly not have been so ready to regard her as an ‘independent’ witness.


EVIDENCE OF DEATH ON SUNDAY OR MONDAY – 6. The lack of any credible, independent evidence by anybody that Madeleine McCann was seen alive after Sunday 29th April.


We have said that Madeleine was seen alive on Sunday 29th April at lunch-time. We have given evidence that we cannot rely on the claims by Catriona Baker and the McCanns that Madeleine was alive at an alleged ‘high tea’ on Thursday afternoon. (Charlotte Pennington later gave a statement about this alleged ‘high tea’ but that also contradicted the other three statements).


All other claims by witnesses who claim to have seen Madeleine after Sunday have been examined in detail by a British ex-pat now living in Canada, Lizzy Taylor (13). She concluded that apart from the evidence given by the McCanns and their Tapas 7 friends - which of course is not independent – all other statements claiming to have seen her were open to serious doubt. Many were extremely vague, with no checkable details given. Others were plainly wrong, for example, witnesses claiming to have seen Madeleine eating breakfast with the McCanns in the Millennium when the McCanns in their statements have consistently said they ate breakfast in their apartment every day from Monday onwards.


The absence of any other reliable witness to seeing Madeleine from Monday onwards is disturbing, and strongly tends to confirm that Madeleine was not alive after Sunday.


EVIDENCE OF DEATH ON SUNDAY OR MONDAY – 7. The mystery of the strange ‘Make-Up Photo’ of Madeleine, which appears to have been taken on Sunday 29th April.


The ‘Make-Up Photo’ was first published in a short, 2-minute video made by Madeleine’s godfather, Jon Corner. It shows Madeleine with a great deal of make-up, namely:
a necklace
a hair bead
lipstick
eye shadow, and
eye liner.


It must also be said that Madeleine has very dilated (large) pupils in the photo, and there is no sign whatsoever of any happiness or joy. Rather, she looks deeply sad. Many observers have understandably called it a ‘Lolita’ photograph (42).


When this photo was published, it attracted much negative comment, including in one British broadsheet newspaper, the Independent. A prominent criminologist, Mark Williams-Thomas, also criticized the McCanns for releasing this photograph (although it is by no means certain that the McCanns gave permission for this photograph to be published) (42).


The McCanns claimed that the Make-Up Photo showed Madeleine ‘playing with Mummy’s make-up box’ and told the media that the picture was taken ‘a few weeks before’ their Praia da Luz holiday (42).


Many Madeleine researchers who have studied this photograph carefully have made these observations about it (14) (15):
Madeleine could not have applied the eyeliner herself. She could not have applied either the lipstick or the blue eye-shadow neatly. She certainly could not have put on her necklace herself, nor her hair bead. An adult must have done all this, but we have not been told who did it. Therefore the McCanns have not been truthful about the circumstances in which this photograph was taken. That means we are entitled to ask serious questions about when, where and why it was taken.
In the photo, we see Madeleine’s pupils dilated (enlarged)
Madeleine displays no signs of fun, joy or happiness in this photo, as you would expect if she was having fun playing with Mummy’s make-up box. On the contrary, there seems to be a look of sadness, or even fear or dread in her eyes.
The photo is taken against a stucco background, either cream, yellow or ochre in colour. This is most unlike houses built in England. However, it strongly resembles the outdoor cladding of many buildings along the Algarve coast in Portugal.
Madeleine’s appearance in the Make Up Photo is strikingly similar to how she looks in the ‘Last Photo’, which we assert was taken on the Sunday. In both photos:
Madeleine’s hair length, style and colour is identical
in both, she is wearing a hair bead (although in different positions), and
in both, she can be seen wearing a pink-coloured smock, top or dress.


Especially given what we have said in point (5) above, we are entitled to ask whether this photo could have been taken on the McCanns’ holiday in Praia da Luz, possibly even on the very same day as the Last Photo – Sunday, 29th April.


Clear photographic evidence that the very same pyjamas Madeleine had with her on holiday in Praia da Luz were later held up by the McCanns at two press conferences, one in London on 5th June 2007, the other in Amsterdam, Holland, on 7th June 2007.


Here we rely, first, on evidence that can be viewed on the film: ‘Madeleine: Why the Cover-Up?’ by Richard D Hall, link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWWjkL-joS4&t=1321s (4)

Second, we rely on the longer, written analysis by Dr Martin Roberts in an article titled ‘A Nightwear Job’, which can be viewed here: https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t12555-dr-martin-roberts-a-nightwear-job (16)


In summary, the film by Hall and the article by Dr Roberts reveal the following:
Madeleine’s pyjamas were photographed by the McCanns before they raised the alarm about Madeleine being missing at about 10.00pm on 3 May
Very clear photographic evidence (and other accompanying evidence) proves that the identical pair of pyjamas were personally displayed by the McCanns at two press conferences, one in London on 5th June 2007, the other in Amsterdam, Holland, on 7th June 2007.


It follows from these two facts that the entire claim by the McCanns that Madeleine was abducted - in her pyjamas, between 9.15pm and 10.00pm - is false. Madeleine must therefore have disappeared under entirely different circumstances. As Dr Roberts out it in his article: “If Madeleine’s pyjamas were not abducted, then neither was Madeleine”.


OBJECTIONS TO OUR THEORY


A number of objections have been raised to our hypothesis. We list them here and give brief answers:


1 ‘It would be impossible for so many people to lie about the death of a missing girl and take part in a cover-up’
2 ‘No-one would dare to stage a hoax abduction after their child had been dead 3-4 days’
3 ‘The McCanns and their friends could not have all agreed to cover up a child’s death’
3 ‘It is impossible to believe that Catriona Baker, Madeleine’s crèche nanny, could help to forge the crèche records and lie about Madeleine not being in the crèche from Monday onwards’
4 ‘Mrs Fenn heard Madeleine crying for her Daddy between 10.30pm and 11.45pm on Tuesday 1 May’.


In reply, we make the following points.


So far as Mrs Fenn’s evidence is concerned, there are several major problems about it:
she did not make statements about having heard Madeleine crying until 20th August, over 3½ months after Tuesday 1st May (4) (43)
neither did she make statements about an alleged break-in at her flat until 20th August (4) (44)
a review of all the statements she made about the alleged burglary reveals major contradictions e.g. about when the burglary was supposed to have happened, what actually happened inside her flat, how the intruder escaped, and who else was there at the time (44)
the evidence she gave was leaked in advance and was published in the British press on 18 & 19 August i.e. before she gave her statement, suggesting that she colluded with others in giving her evidence (4) (43) (44)
she claims to have heard Madeleine crying ever more loudly for 75 minutes – but no-one else in the apartment bloc heard this
she contrived her statement to say that the crying was that of a child ‘more than two years old’ – but it is not possible to make such a clear distinction between the crying of a three-year-old and a two-year old
she did not seek any help in alerting anyone else to the crying she said she heard, except an alleged telephone call to a Mrs Edna Glyn, which as far as we know from the PJ files the Portuguese police were unable to verify, and
she herself told the media to ignore all that had been said in the newspapers about her evidence.
There are further details about the multiple problems with her evidence at these references: (43) (44)


In response to the other points above, we simply do not know how Madeleine died, especially now that it seems certain that she died on the Sunday or possibly Monday. It is possible, in fact we say probable, that she may have died under circumstances where the McCanns and their friends felt there was serious risk for them if Madeleine’s body was to be produced for an autopsy. At this point we mention the sexually suggestive remarks made by Dr David Payne about Madeleine, as reported on 19th May 2007 by Dr Arul and Dr Katarina Gaspar. We also think it is relevant to point out that the Gaspars’ two statements were not forwarded to the PJ until three weeks after Gonçalo Amaral had been removed from the case.


It has been suggested that Madeleine’s death could not have been covered up because far too many people must have been involved. In reply, we suggest that only a handful of people would be needed to keep Madeleine’s death a secret. By Sunday night, Madeleine would not be known by many people except the McCanns, their ‘Tapas 7’ friends and Catriona Baker, Madeleine’s crèche nanny (who, as we have evidenced, seems to have been a friend of the McCann family already). Possibly the Ocean Club Manager and someone from Mark Warner may have been informed and a collective decision made to keep Madeleine’s death a secret and plan a hoax abduction (45) (46) (47).


If Madeleine’s death was the result of any criminality, that would be a powerful reason for those involved to cover up what had happened. A cover-up and hoax abduction could then have been carried out in total secrecy.


The facts point to death on Sunday, or Monday at the latest.


This, we suggest, opens up a vital new line of enquiry. This, we suggest, must be the starting-point for a fresh Portuguese police investigation.


We conclude by suggesting what we think must be obvious by now to the Portuguese authorities: namely that the Metropolitan Police investigation into Madeleine’s death, Operation Grange, has clearly never been a genuine attempt by the British police to get to the truth of what really happened to Madeleine.


We add many references below and would be willing to assist the Portuguese judicial and police authorities in any further way that we can.


Yours sincerely


The Madeleine McCann Research Group


LIST OF REFERENCES




What Really Happened to Madeleine McCann, by ‘PeterMac’ (retired British Police Superintendent) http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.co.uk/ and at


http://gerrymccan-abuseofpower-humanrights.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/retired-police-superintendent-peter.html

“The True Story of Madeleine McCann”, 1st Madeleine documentary film by Richard D Hall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIjPcvmVzUo

“The Phantoms: Four fake abductors”, 2nd Madeleine documentary film by Richard D Hall, 2nd Madeleine documentary film by Richard D Hall (examines the fake abduction accounts of Jane Tanner, Nino Lourenco, Martin Smith and the Metropolitan Police)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL0-ePd3FCU

“When Madeleine Died?”, 3rd Madeleine documentary film by Richard D Hall


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70oo2-Sj7to949
 (comprehensive evidence that Madeleine died on Sunday 29 April)

“Madeleine – Why the Cover-Up?” 4th Madeleine documentary film by Richard D Hall


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQgmtrOeDLM  (Part 1 of 6 parts)

Intercalary (interim) report of Chief Inspector Tavares de Almeida, 10 September 2007, Portuguese Policia Judiciara files,


http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/TAVARES_ALMEIDA.htm

The SIX photos that provide the biggest clue to when Madeleine died, CMOMM forum,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t14797-the-six-photos-that-provide-the-biggest-clue-to-when-madeleine-died

NUNO LOURENCO STATEMENT

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/NUNO_LOURENCO.htm

“Was Wojcek Krokowski, Sagres man with a camera, the template for both Tannerman and Smithman?”, CMOMM forum,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t10602-was-wojcek-krokowski-sagres-man-with-a-camera-the-template-for-both-tannerman-and-smithman?

“Krokowski 2: Nuno Lourenco’s account of how Wojchiech Krokowski nearly kidnapped his child”, CMOMM forum,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t12096-krokowski-2-nuno-lourenco-s-account-of-how-wojchiech-krokowski-nearly-kidnapped-his-child

“Textusa article 30 October 2015 on ‘Sagresman’ (Wojchiech Krokowski)…”, CMOMM forum,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t12123-textusas-article-30-oct-2015-on-sagresman-wojchiech-krokowski-a-good-article-excellent-original-research-some-great-conclusions-but-some-wrong-ones?highlight=krokowski

“Catriona Baker and the Creche”, Hideho/Lizzy Taylor,


http://forum4.aimoo.com/madeleinemccanncontroversy/HiDeHo-RESEARCH-POSTS/Catriona-Baker-the-Creche-Post-1-2276097.html

“Was Madeleine Seen After Sunday? – Is there any credible evidence that she was? (28 September 2015), Hideho/Lizzy Taylor,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t11921-was-madeleine-seen-after-sunday

“The Mystery of the Make-Up Photo: Was it taken on the same day as the ‘Last Photo?”, CMOMM forum,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t12958-the-mystery-of-the-make-up-photo-was-it-taken-on-the-same-day-as-the-last-photo?

“Richard Hall’s Appeal for new Information re Madeleine’s Make-Up Photo”, CMOMM forum,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t14749-richard-d-hall-s-appeal-for-new-information-re-madeleine-s-make-up-photo-and-the-thermometer-on-the-wall

“A Nightwear Job”, by Dr Martin Roberts, posted on the CMOMM forum, https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t12555-dr-martin-roberts-a-nightwear-job


“Out, Damn’d Spot”, by Dr Martin Roberts, posted on the CMOMM forum (Madeleine’s pyjamas)


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t5489-out-damned-spot

“A Verdade da Mentira” (English translation by AnnEsse: ‘The Truth of the Lie’), by Goncalo Amaral (2008) [NOTE: Some words of this translation have been amended by Paulo Reis who has translated this letter]


JANE TANNER 1st STATEMENT, 4 May 2007


http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/JANE-TANNER.htm

JANE TANNER 2nd STATEMENT, 10 May 2007


http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/JANE-TANNER-10MAY.htm
“YES or NO? Did Dr David Payne visit Dr Kate McCann on the evening Madeleine was reported missing? - 20

CONTRADICTIONS which suggest that this visit never took place”

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t10076-yes-or-no-did-dr-david-payne-visit-dr-kate-mccann-on-the-evening-madeleine-was-reported-missing-20-contradictions-which-suggest-that-this-visit-never-took-place

“The ‘Niggle’ and the Strange Tale of Robert Murat: Was it a Conspiracy to Pervert the Course of Justice? ”, Paulo Reis, https://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/niggle-and-strange-tale-of-robert-murat.html


“Is this the man who abducted Madeleine? Two witnesses give similar descriptions”, Guardian, 20 January 2008,


https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/jan/21/world.ukcrime

“Hunt for new Madeleine McCann Suspect, Daily Telegraph, 20 January 2008,


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1576048/Hunt-for-new-Madeleine-McCann-suspect.html

“New Sketch Of 'Creepy Madeleine Suspect”, by Joana Morais,


https://joana-morais.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/new-sketch-of-creepy-madeleine-suspect.html

“A Joint Investigation”, Duarte Levy,


https://duartelevyen.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/a-joint-investigation/

“BBC Crimewatch McCann Special, 14 October, 2013”


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ8jmdWlB8Y

“Why did Madeleine McCann Detectives ask so few Questions, after a Major Breakthrough?”, Daily Mail, August 2009


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1206842/Why-did-Madeleine-McCann-detectives-ask-questions.html

“The Mystery of Robert Murat: From Arguido to Applause”, Sections F et seq

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/30775111/the-mystery-of-robert-murat-from-arguido-to-applause-part-two

“Clarence Mitchell Spinning for the McCanns – and for Jane Tanner”, by Joana Morais,


https://joana-morais.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/video-clarence-mitchell-spinning-for.html

“Clarence Mitchell Interview for Channel 4” (Mitchell evades questions about why Jane Tanner identified Robert Murat as the abductor)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFZy2f2yQJA


“Another Look at the Last Photo”, CMOMM forum, https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t10497-another-look-at-the-last-photo


“CHAPER 14: The Last Photo/The Pool Photo by ‘PeterMac''


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t13435-chapter-14-the-last-photo-the-pool-photo

“Alex Woolfall Knows: The Last Photo and other photos of Madeleine in Praia da Luz”


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t7718-alex-woolfall-knows-the-last-photo-and-other-photos-of-madeleine-in-praia-da-luz  


“CHAPER 22: The Tennis Balls by ‘PeterMac’”


http://whatreallyhappenedtomadeleinemccann.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/chapter-22-tennis-balls-photo.html 


“When was the Tennis Balls Photo taken?”, CMOMM forum,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t12585-when-was-the-tennis-balls-pic-taken


“Recap on the Tennis Balls Photo”,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t8010-recap-on-the-tennis-balls-photo


“Philip Edmond, Deputy Chairman of Stemcor and Nephew of Lady Margaret Hodge”, CMOMM forum,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t9811-philip-edmonds-deputy-chairman-of-stemcor-and-nephew-of-lady-margaret-hodge-pictures-of-madeleine-and-the-letters-between-tony-bennett-philip-edmonds-in-2011

“STATEMENT OF CATRIONA BAKER (Madeleine’s trip to the beach)”


http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/CATRIONA-TREASA-B.htm

“1ST STATEMENT OF CATRIONA BAKER, 6 May 2007”


http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/CATRIONA-TREASA.htm

“ROGATORY STAYEMENT – CATRIONA BAKER, 18 April 2018”


http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/CAT_BAKER.htm


“60 Reasons why the McCanns should never have published THAT photo: The Make-Up ‘Lolita’ Photo”.  


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t1912-60-reasons-why-the-mccanns-should-never-have-published-that-photo-the-make-up-lolita-photo


“10 Reasons which suggest that Pamela Fenn did not hear any child crying on Tuesday 1 May 2007*, CMOMM forum,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t11939-10-reasons-which-suggest-that-pamela-fenn-did-not-hear-any-child-crying-on-tuesday-1-may-2007

“Was there an attempted burglary of Mrs Pameal Fenn’s flat in the week before Madeleine was reported missing?”


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t11905-was-there-an-attempted-burglary-of-mrs-pamela-fenns-flat-in-the-weeks-before-madeleine-was-reported-missing?highlight=fenn

“Planning the abduction hoax: Was it done over four days or four hours?”, by MMRG, on the CMOMM forum,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t14704-planning-the-abduction-hoax-was-it-done-over-four-days-or-four-hours

“What really happened to Madeleine McCann: Was she killed on Sunday 29thh April?”, CMOMM forum,


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t14249-what-really-happened-to-madeleine-mccann-was-she-killed-on-sunday-29-april

“Madeleine McCann could not have died from an accident, nor from anything else, after 5.30pm on Thursday 3 May 2007”


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t13044-madeleine-mccann-could-not-have-died-from-an-accident-nor-from-anything-else-after-5-30pm-on-thursday-3-may-2007









by
Paulo Reis   

Saturday, 17 March 2018

Attorney General receives “new theory” in disappearance of Madeleine McCann


 
A team of independent investigators working over the last decade has come up with what it believes may have happened to Madeleine McCann.

It is independent of the official story. It doesn’t work to the accepted timeline and it doesn’t involve gypsies, blundering burglars, or Eastern European child smugglers.

Says a member of the investigating group, the theory has been run past professionals from all walks of life, time and again.

The team are convinced that this now needs to be seriously considered by the investigative authorities.

They have communicated their findings to British prime minister Theresa May, and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, but the six-page letter laying out what they believe to be “credible evidence” appears to have changed nothing (although it was purportedly forwarded to the Grange ‘investigation team’).

A new letter, translated into Portuguese - containing all the research, and the “detailed file of evidence” on which it has relied - has now been sent to the Portuguese Attorney General as well as newspaper and website journalists in this country.

Said our source: “It is a question of hoping one of them will have the courage to undertake what no-one seems willing to conduct in the UK: a serious investigation into what really happened to Madeleine Beth McCann”.

This development comes just as the British Home Office is considering yet another request for funding of the Met’s long-running Operation Grange investigation.

Grange was opened in 2011 and has so far spent over £11 million investigating Madeleine’s disappearance against a backdrop of criticism, particularly over social media.

As the Madeleine McCann Research Group waits to hear what develops from the 20-page letter - sent from the UK on March 6 and logged as received by the Attorney General’s office on March 12 - a leading member of the group said: “it is important that people follow this logically, and without preconceptions - however shocking the conclusion may seem”.

natasha.donn@algarveresident.com

Wednesday, 2 August 2017

What happened to Madeleine McCann? - No. 4   50 ridiculous stories the British media "ARE" telling you




PLEASE COPY THIS LEAFLET OR PASS IT TO OTHERS WHEN YOU’VE READ IT.  THANK YOU



This is our fourth leaflet in this series. The three previous ones featured facts about the reported disappearance of Madeleine McCann that the British media have not been telling you about. This leaflet is different.



While the British mainstream media have for years denied the British public the facts that might help us to better understand what happened to Madeleine, they have, at the same time, shamelessly produced many ridiculous, unbelievable stories about what might have happened to Madeleine, mainly to sell more newspapers and make more money. Some of these stories were even generated by the McCanns’ chief publicist, Clarence Mitchell, former Head of Tony Blair’s  Media Monitoring Unit. He once boasted that his job was ‘to control what comes out in the media’. Many stories featured in this leaflet could have harmed Madeleine, if she really had been abducted, was still alive and being held by an abductor. Suppose even one of these ‘sightings’ and ‘claims’ was true? What would be the effect on any abductor? What would he be likely to do? Many of the stories could have put Madeleine, if still alive, at great risk, by causing an abductor to take steps to evade the police.   



Our first leaflet examined the main facts of the case. You can watch a video of this leaflet on YouTube, in 4 parts, at this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnXtYSeXSiw   Our second looked at the main members of the ‘McCann Team’, examining their activities, focusing on the controversial individuals (some of them criminals) and detective agencies they used - for what they said was their search for Madeleine. Our third leaflet discussed Operation Grange, the 6-year-long Metropolitan Police review and investigation into Madeleine’s reported disappearance. We have numbered our points from No. 151 onwards, this being a continuation of our first three leaflets.



British media stories about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann



We present below a selection of some of the most bizarre claimed ‘sightings’ and stories about Madeleine’s disappearance printed in the British media, some more ridiculous and unbelievable than others. A very useful website on the internet which gives further details about many of these stories is:

http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/SIGHTINGS.htm  and many of them are discussed in detail on this popular Madeleine McCann discussion forum: http://jillhavern.forumotion.net/


In 2017, the Sun published a list of 8,685 different ‘sightings’ of Madeleine.  The initial claim by the McCanns was that Madeleine had been abducted by a paedophile or a group of paedophiles. A bewildering variety of ‘sightings’, theories and claims about what really happened to Madeleine followed. We add comments on some of the stories, which we list in the approximate chronological order on which they were first published:



151. Madeleine seen in a taxi by Mr Cardosa on the day she was reported missing (3 May 2007) COMMENT: The taxi-driver claimed he had had a young blond-haired girl in his taxi, with two adults. But his story unravelled when he got muddled about which day this happened. He was dismissed as an attention-seeker.



152. Robert Murat’s girlfriend Michaela Walczuk handed Madeleine over to someone near the Spanish border (May 2007) COMMENT: This curious story emerged months after Madeleine had been reported missing. Moreover, when it did emerge, it was via the controversial, corrupt Spanish detective agency used by the McCanns, Metodo 3. On 13 November 2007, the man who ran the McCanns’ investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, businessman Brian Kennedy, met with the Portuguese Police, bringing with him two Metodo 3 detectives (one of them, Antonio Giminez Raso, was arrested three months later and spent four years in prison on serious drugs and corruption charges). At the November 2007 meetings, the Metodo 3 detectives said they had been contacted by a truck driver who saw a blonde woman handing over ‘a package wrapped in a blanket’ to a man on a camp site near the border with Spain. The Portuguese Police followed this up, but it was another false lead.    



153. Maddie in a Dutch shop owned by Anna Stam (6 May 2007):  COMMENT:  This sighting was not made public for a full 15 months. It finally surfaced in the British media on 7 & 8 August 2008, after Anna Stam had flown to London to meet the McCann Team and help to draw up an artist’s sketch of the couple she said she’d seen with a young girl in her party shop in Amsterdam on Sunday 6 May 2007, three days after Madeleine had been reported missing. Ms Stam claimed the girl had spoken to her and said: “My name is Maddie. She is not my Mummy. They took me from my holiday”. Ms Stam did not report her sighting for a month. Dutch police interviewed her, drew up computer e-fits, and sent them to the Portuguese police on 18 June. The Portuguese police declined to follow up the information, besieged as they were by the intense work of their initial investigation and the presence of hundreds of international media journalists in Praia da Luz.  Ms Stam said: “I didn't like the man, he didn't look like a nice person…most people smile when they come in to buy things…he didn't smile back at me when I smiled at him. He had no sparkle in his eyes. He seemed angry”. She added: “The woman seemed stressed and uncomfortable. The man spoke in Portuguese. I know because I have Brazilian friends. The woman spoke in French while the little girl spoke English. It didn't seem like a real family”. The story was revived in August 2008 when the McCanns became aware that the Portuguese police had not travelled to Holland to follow up Ms Stam’s claims.  The McCanns’ PR spokesman Clarence Mitchell told the Mirror: “Anna did the right thing in contacting the Dutch police. But I find it shocking that the Portuguese police weren't even in touch, either with her or with us. I'm grateful to the Mirror for bringing her to us. Her evidence could be very significant. Our investigators will interview her in the next few days”.



154. Madeleine seen near a petrol station in Marrakesh, Morocco, asking to see ‘My Mummy’(9 May 2007) COMMENT:  A witness was sure she saw Madeleine with a man near a Marrekesh petrol station, next to the Hotel Ibis, on May 9, 2007. She said the girl ‘looked very distressed’ and said: “Can we go see Mummy now?’  The Daily Star revived this story as recently as 17 April 2017, as the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance neared:  http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/606677/madeleine-mccann-sightings-maddie-2017-morocco



155. Madeleine seen asleep on a Belgian train (May 14, 2007)   COMMENT: A British man claimed he saw a child asleep on a train from Brussels to Antwerp and thought she looked drugged. The girl was with a balding, 6ft white man in his forties, who got off the train at Mechelen carrying her.



156.  Sightings in Geneva, Switzerland (16 May 2007)  COMMENT: A man reported seeing Madeleine in   Geneva on 16 May. In June, there were two separate sightings of a girl seen at Geneva Airport with a blonde woman in her 50s. Fifty police officers were called to search the entire terminal building, while all the pilots were asked to search their planes for the child:   http://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20070623/281621005920288



157. Police looking for a red van with false number plates near Lisbon (17 May 2007) COMMENT: This story was reported by SKY News.



158. GCHQ hunt for Madeleine after they intercept messages in Arabic referring to "the little blonde girl" (29 May 2007) COMMENT:  Yes, even GCHQ in Cheltenham were involved in the search for Madeleine, in a story covered by Fox News on 29 May: “Brits Follow Cell Phone Signals in Hunt for Madeleine".



159. Three sightings in Belgium, two in Tongeren (May and June 2007): COMMENT: There were three more reported sightings in Belgium. The first was in May 2007 in Liège. Then, on 27 June, Jessica Beem said she had seen Madeleine in her flower-shop in Tongeren. A third claimed sighting, also in Tongeren, occurred on 28 July on a café terrace, where children’s therapist Katleen Sampermans said Madeleine was with a ‘strange-looking’ Dutch man and an Englishwoman. An artist’s sketch of the Dutchman was compiled. However, the girl turned out to be the 4-year-old daughter of a Belgian man. The Portuguese newspaper Correia da Manha in August 2008 reported that Interpol had received reports from 107 people that they had seen Madeleine. See here:




160. Two sightings in Zaio, Morocco (late May/early June 2007) COMMENT: A Spanish tourist said she saw a girl resembling Madeleine as she drove through the town of Zaio in northern Morocco at the end of May. Later, another Spanish tourist, Isabel Gonzalez, said she saw a girl fitting Madeleine’s description being ‘dragged across a street’, also in Zaio, by a North African woman on 15 June.



161. Madeleine seen in Hong Kong (14 June 14  2007)  COMMENT: A woman claimed that she had spotted  Madeleine in a Hong Kong shopping centre. The ‘sighting’ was ruled out after police studied CCTV footage



162. 28 sightings in Malta (17 to 29 June 2007)  COMMENT: There was a spate of alleged sightings of Madeleine in Malta, see e.g. here http://www.standard.co.uk/news/11-sightings-of-madeleine-in-malta-but-police-investigations-draw-a-blank-7237853.html  She was seen several times with a man, once with a woman. Another claimed to have seen her boarding a bus in the capital, Valetta. Elsewhere a Maltese man used his mobile ’phone to take a photo of a child he believed to be Madeleine at a parish festival in Zejtun on 17 June. A man from north Wales  said he saw a girl in the north-eastern town of Sliema wearing a jet black wig who was being told: "Get up, little girl”, by an Arab-looking man. Nothing came of any of these sightings: yet more police time wasted. 



163. Madeleine seen in Dubrovnik, Croatia (19 June 2007) COMMENT: She was allegedly seen in Dubrovnik, Croatia, laying on the floor ‘kicking and screaming’ and yelling: “I’m never going to see them again”.



164. Antonia Toscano, a Spanish journalist and professed ‘expert in Satanic cults’, said he knew Madeleine had been abducted by a French paedophile - on orders from wealthy organisers of a European child sex ring (27 June 2007)  COMMENT: A false claim by a man with a vivid imagination (see also No. 200).



165. Madeleine seen twice in Bosnia (8 July and 10 November 2007)  COMMENT: A British tourist believed he had seen Madeleine at the Roman Catholic shrine of Medjugorje. He said the little blonde girl he saw with a couple was ‘agitated and sobbing’. Police traced the girl, who was a local. In November, an Irishman visiting the same shrine contacted McCann detectives Metodo 3 to tell them he heard a little girl cry ‘I want my Daddy’ as she was driven away (10 November 2007).  This story was apparently backed up by a shop assistant. The Irishman had seen the car’s number plate, details of which were reported by the media before the police had chance to find the owner.    



166. Two women reported seeing a child who looked like Madeleine with a man at a petrol station near Cartagena, Spain (21 August 2007) COMMENT: This alleged sighting was thoroughly investigated by both the Spanish National Police and Civil Guard, using up hundreds of valuable police man-hours: Press Association, 23 August 2007, ‘Madeleine Spain sighting' probed’; also in the Guardian, 26 August 2007.



167. Madeleine was being carried on a peasant’s back in Morocco at Zinat near Tangier. The girl was actually Bushra Binhisa, the daughter of the woman who was carrying her (seen on 31 August, reported 20 September 2007)  COMMENT: This case received huge publicity in the British press, including the broadsheets, in September 2007. A European-looking girl of about Madeleine’s age was photographed as a Moroccan peasant woman carried her on her back. The girl’s face didn’t look like Madeleine at all, yet the British press ran banner headlines: ‘IS THIS MADELEINE?’ It turned out that this photo had first been seen by the McCanns, who passed it to the press. They must have known that it was not their daughter. Yet they let millions of British newspaper readers think that this might be Madeleine. Police and even journalists were sent out to Morocco and soon found the peasant family. The parents were shocked and distressed to have been accused of abducting Madeleine.         



168. Naoula Mahli claimed to have seen Madeleine in Fnideq, Morocco. Later, Lord Leveson was told at the Leveson enquiry into press standards that the Daily Express paid her £500 for her story (November 2007) COMMENT: This alleged sighting by Naoual Malhi occurred (she says) on 21 August 2007, but was not reported to the Spanish police until 6 days afterwards. Mrs Malhi claimed she was told by police that over 100 people had reported seeing Madeleine McCann in the same mountain area. She then reported her claims to Metodo 3 at the end of October. Naoual Malhi is a Moroccan doctor who lives in a British expatriate community near Malaga, Spain. She is divorced and at the time had a 4-year-old child. The blonde girl identified in the city of Fnideq as Madeleine McCann turned out to be a Moroccan child living with her parents, according to the director of the Moroccan Judicial Police. Naoula Mahli wove a superficially believable story about having discovered where Madeleine was being held. But her story didn’t stand up. Did she make it all up just to get £500 from the Daily Express?

  

169. Dunedin, New Zealand: Madeleine was seen in a supermarket in New Zealand with a man (5 December 2007) COMMENT: CCTV footage from New Zealand showed a girl like Madeleine being led into a supermarket by a portly man in shorts. The man’s behaviour aroused the suspicions of a female security guard in the Dunedin shop on South Island. She approached the girl who said her name was ‘Hailey’. But the security guard remained  convinced the girl was Madeleine and reported the matter to police. The CCTV footage of the man and girl was repeatedly shown on New Zealand TV, and in Britain. Interpol in Wellington was also called in to investigate. Of course, it was not Madeleine McCann but a young girl out shopping with her father. 



170. A man who looked like Beatle George Harrison may have abducted Madeleine (January 2008) COMMENT: This was a major front-page story on Sunday 30 January 2008 in the now-defunct News of the World. It was heavily prepared in advance by the McCann Team with the active help of Leicestershire Police. The entire story was woven by the McCann Team around a real individual who was often seen around Praia da Luz. One strange feature of the case concerned McCann friend Jane Tanner’s involvement in the story. She was the friend of the McCanns who claimed she had seen a man carrying a young blond child near the McCanns’ apartment at 9.15pm on the night she was reported missing. In all her descriptions of this man, she admitted that she never saw any part of his face. Brian Kennedy, head of the McCanns’ private investigation, had used a lady by the name of Melissa Little (said to be an F.B.I.-trained forensic artist) to draw a sketch of the man Jane Tanner said she had seen in May. In the sketch, released in October 2007, the man’s face was not seen. Later, in January 2008, Jane Tanner was shown the sketch of the man drawn to look like Beatle George Harrison. It was of his face, and he had a moustache. Despite never having seen the face of the man she said she had seen on 3 May, she now said she was ‘60 to 80% sure’ that ‘George Harrison man’ was the same man she’d seen in May! It emerged later that Jane Tanner had done an identification parade on 13 May 2007, when she said she was ‘adamant’ that Robert Murat was the man she had seen on 3 May. But the subsequent sketch she approved in October 2007 looked nothing like him. Hardly surprisingly, the Portuguese Police dismissed everything Jane Tanner said as wholly unreliable.        



171. Madeleine seen at a service station on the A9 motorway near Montpellier, France (21 February 2008) COMMENT: The claim that Madeleine had been seen in a service station on the A9 motorway in France was taken so seriously by the British press that even broadsheets devoted long articles to the alleged ‘sighting’. Even the Daily Telegraph’s respected Chief Reporter, Gordon Rayner, wrote an extensive piece on the subject, solemnly reported as follows: “Madeleine’s parents were facing further heartache today when it emerged that CCTV footage of a little girl playing in the south of France is ‘almost certainly not her’. Hopes of finding the missing four-year-old were raised when a Dutch student said she spotted the child at a service station close to the city of Montpellier last Friday. Melissa Firing, 18, said the child was with a ‘tall, swarthy’ man who bundled her away in a car. French detectives spent ‘hours’ examining the footage at the nation’s Criminal Research Institute in Rosny-sur-Bois, near  Paris. Police even tracked down the owner of the car in which the little girl was driven away, after the number plate appeared on the video footage. A ‘source close to the McCanns’ said: “The owner has provided a plausible explanation of what he was doing with a young child in a motorway service station”. French police at the time said they were also investigating allegations that young children, including babies, were being ‘sold’ at impromptu auctions in car parks along the Mediterranean coast. 



172. A Portuguese couple with Madeleine in tow knocked at the door of a retired civil servant in Dorset (25 February 2008)  COMMENT: Reported in the Daily Telegraph, 24 February 2008.  This is believed to be the first reported sighting of Madeleine in Britain. It occurred in Dorset, where civil servant Alan Cameron had retired. He told police that Madeleine was with a Portuguese couple who came to the door. Yet another false claim.



173. Madeleine seen on a plane to Brazil, one of six ‘sightings’ in that country (14 May 2008)  COMMENT: A traveller claimed to have seen Madeleine travelling on a plane to Brazil. Interpol’s chief Jorge Pontes said: “This sighting is still under investigation so we cannot reveal details. We have a witness insisting they saw the child on a flight to Sao Paulo”. Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ PR spokesman, said: “The couple’s privately hired detective agency, Metodo 3, are looking into the latest claim”. There had been five other ‘sightings’ in Brazil, one in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian police chief Marilia Moreira Marques said that a man called Mark claimed to have seen Madeleine at a book fair in Cinelandia Square, Rio de Janeiro, on 11 May 2007. The sighting had been reported to a foreign embassy in the capital, and was referred to Interpol, who were said to hold a ‘40-page dossier’ on Madeleine.  On 7 June, a man said he spotted Madeleine in an Ipanema cafe sitting with a man. He said she looked ‘sad’ and was not speaking to her male companion. See:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/1954397/Madeleine-McCann-spotted-on-plane-to-Brazil.html


174. Madeleine spotted on a Venezuelan island (18 May 2008)  COMMENT: A British businessman and yacht skipper, Trevor Francis, said he saw Madeleine in the company of two or three women on the island of Margarita in Venezuela. He claimed this happened several weeks previously, but says he didn’t approach her because he was ‘too fearful of causing a spectacle’: “I wanted to grab her and shout out her name and see what reaction I would get," he told the News of the World. Mr Francis claimed he noticed an identical eye blemish to that of Madeleine.   




175. Croatian national footballer’s two-year-old son mistaken for Madeleine (18 August 2008) COMMENT:  Two British tourists spotted a woman leading what they thought was a young girl with long blonde hair along a beach on the Croatian holiday island of Krk. They both immediately thought it was Madeleine McCann. They secretly took photographs of the child. The British woman seized a chance to grab the child’s arm, intending to take her to the police. Only then did she realise that the child was not Madeleine as it was a boy. The boy’s mother turned out to be well-known Croatian model Nives Drpic, while the father was a footballer for the Croatian national team and for Dinamo Zagreb. They were described as the ‘Posh & Becks’ of Croatia. See: http://www.gossiprocks.com/forum/news/79834-british-couple-tried-rescue-madeleine-mccann-lookalike-little-croatian-boy.html  and  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1046405/British-couple-tried-rescue-Maddy-lookalike--Croatian-football-star-model-wife.html



176. Madeleine seen in Algeria with a suspicious-looking family (September 2008) COMMENT: A man said he had seen a Madeleine look-alike blonde girl, with a British accent, with an Algerian family who were ‘acting suspiciously’.



177. Maddie seen in the company of a big, fat gypsy woman (September 2008)  COMMENT:  A British woman, Mrs Jean Godwin, aged 56, from Widnes, Cheshire, was sure she had spotted Madeleine McCann in the company of two fat women at Carvoeiro, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz, and rang the McCanns’ ‘investigation hotline’. Mrs Godwin described a ‘gaunt, very thin, malnourished’ young blonde girl wearing a black, shiny wig being dragged by ‘gipsy women’. One of the women, she said, was an ‘obese’ size 30, in her mid-to-late 40s, with ‘dirty and unkempt’ red hair. She added: “The girl’s eyes were wide open and my attention was drawn to the large irises. I am 100% sure it was Madeleine”.  This sighting, said the McCann Team’s investigators, matched an earlier account of a fat, red-haired woman, now known to be Yvone Albino, a cleaner, who had been seen by another British tourist, Jeni Weinberger, from Salisbury, Wilshire, acting suspiciously outside the McCanns’ apartment on 3 May 2007, the day Madeleine McCann was reported missing.  The McCanns’ investigators traced her -  she has two grown up sons but no young children - and followed her to a small, run-down farmhouse on an orange grove, near Silves, not far from Praia da Luz. They then began a surveillance operation at the farmhouse, fearing that Madeleine was being held prisoner there. In the following months, Yvone Albino paid several visits to the property, a holiday home owned by a teacher and his partner, whom the investigators deemed to be ‘suspicious’. Their concerns were raised when they discovered a white Citroen Berlingo with a child’s doll on the back seat and a child’s drawing among rubbish bags - even though the couple did not have young children. Mrs Albino, who has two grown-up sons but no young children, used to visit teacher Jorge Martins and his partner Maria Silveira (traced through their car), at their run-down farmhouse in an orange grove. Portuguese police confronted Mrs Albino, who said she knew nothing about either sighting and denied any contact with young children. Officers found the house deserted. The woman with Mrs Albino in Carvoeiro was never identified. Mr Martins and Miss Silveira have never been accused of any crime by police. He told police the doll was given to him by his students several years earlier. Nothing came of all this effort, but it made it look as though the McCann Team were doing a real investigation.                         See: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/7364631/McCanns-detective-searching-for-girl-in-a-wig-seen-with-two-gipsies.html



178.  Madeleine spotted in Majorca by British tourist (28 September 2008): COMMENT:  Two British  holidaymakers were convinced that they saw Madeleine on a beach at Cala d'Or, Majorca. She was reportedly ‘in the company of two women’, but they also added: “We saw the girl was on her own under a parasol on the beach with a colouring book, which struck us as odd…later in the week we saw the girl again and the woman was trying to drag them down to the beach, although it was dark, which she again found odd”. Spanish police combed dozens of hotels and holiday apartments to try to locate the girl. One police spokesman said: “We are aware of the numerous previous sightings all over the world that have turned out to be false and it could well be that the couple have made an honest mistake”.  See here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/3086959/Police-investigate-claimed-Madeleine-McCann-sighting-in-Majorca.html  …and in the Daily Mail



179. Madeleine seen with a Portuguese child trafficker in the United States (9 October 2008) COMMENT:     On October 9, 2008 it was reported that Madeleine was living with a Portuguese man in the U.S. He allegedly was a child trafficker, smuggling children from his homeland, Mexico and Greece.



180. Madeleine asked for a chocolate ice-cream from an ice-cream seller whilst with a French family in Brussels (October 2008)  COMMENT: A North African-looking woman with a young girl in tow was picked up on CCTV footage by a security guard at a branch of the Belgian bank KBC. Later, an ice cream vendor, Antonio Migliardi, came forward, describing the woman as being ‘very severe’ with the child, adding: “She held her hand firmly and kept pulling her closer. When I gave the ice cream to the child she stood frozen. The lady took it in her place. Normally a happy child always takes the ice. This was not a normal situation”.  The security guard said: “I will bet everything I own that the child I saw was Madeleine McCann”. Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ spokesman, commented: “We take this information seriously”.  See: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/2544450/Madeleine-McCann-seen-again-in-Brussels.html



181. Maddie seen in a Spanish restaurant in Maryland, U.S.A. (May 2009) COMMENT: An unnamed woman spoke to the Sun newspaper in June 2013, saying she thought she saw Madeleine in a Spanish restaurant in Montgomery County, Maryland, accompanied by a blonde woman and two men, one of whom was ‘scruffy-looking with a foreign accent’. She added: “I’ve never felt so strongly about something”. She said that Operation Grange was now following up the alleged ‘sighting’.



182. Madeleine was abducted by British paedophile Raymond Hewlett (2009 and 2010)  COMMENT: This was a long-running story in 2009 and 2010. Raymond Hewlett was a convicted British paedophile who had been travelling around Europe in 2007, when Madeleine was reported missing. Another traveller, Peter Verran, had met with Raymond Hewlett in June 2007 in Morocco. The two men discussed Madeleine McCann, and Hewlett admitted that he had been staying about 30 miles away from Praia da Luz at the time Madeleine went missing. He also said he knew of the apartment block where the McCann family had been staying in May 2007. Hewlett denied he had been in Praia da Luz that week and there was no evidence that he was. Yet the McCann Team kept the story of Hewlett being a suspect going for months. They made repeated attempts to interview him, having located him at a hospital in Aachen, Germany, where he was being treated in hospital (see also below).     



183. Madeleine was taken on a yacht to Australia by an Australian woman who looked like Victoria Beckham and wanted ‘a new daughter’ (6 August 2009) This was another major news story promoted by the McCanns. Their PR spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, held a news conference where he paraded a sketch of what the woman looked like. He said she looked like Victoria Beckham (‘Posh Spice’). The whole story was said to have come from a British man, said variously to have been a ‘businessman’ or ‘banker’. The McCanns didn’t give the man’s name, so his story couldn’t be checked. It was claimed that the man told the McCann Team that on Sunday 6 May 2007, he had been drinking all evening in some of the numerous bars around Barcelona docks. He said that at 2am that night, a young woman with an Australian accent came up to him and asked: ‘Have you got my new daughter?’ He said ‘No’, and the young woman went away. Despite Madeleine’s disappearance being front-page news around the world at the time, he had delayed reporting this incident for over two years, claiming he had ‘agonised’ all that time over whether or not to report it. It was claimed that Madeleine may have been taken by boat from Praia da Luz to Barcelona (a journey of hundreds of miles), and that the woman with an Australian accent had arranged to ‘buy’ her at Barcelona docks three days later and board a large yacht bound for Australia which was leaving the next day. Amazingly, the British press once again fell for this most unlikely story. It made the top story  on TV and mainstream British newspaper bulletins. It caused an extensive police search for the woman in Australia. A month after this story, the Mail on Sunday exposed the fact that the McCanns’ detectives who had researched this story had neglected to contact any of relevant Barcelona agencies, such as the police and the port authority, and had failed to do the most basic of checks with owners of pubs around the port.  On 9 August, a  Sydney Morning Herald article: ‘Madness in the search for Maddie’, reported that, following the McCanns’dramatic press conference, the search for Madeleine ‘swept across at least four Australian states’, with ‘a string of sightings’ by people who said they had seen a woman looking like ‘Posh Spice’ A 53-year-old Australian woman, Judith Aron, was ‘forced to deny’ that she had abducted Madeleine. She had a fair-haired five-year-old daughter. It was thought that a neighbour had reported her because she ‘spoke Spanish’. Also, an elderly Sydney woman went into Burwood police station claiming that a friend she had met in Spain, and travelled with in Portugal, was the woman in the identikit picture. She was later identified as Nelida Martinez and was soon ruled out. The McCanns said they had received over 600 e-mails after issuing the ‘Posh Spice lookalike’ appeal, mostly from Australia. See: http://www.smh.com.au/national/madness-in-search-for-maddie-20090808-edj3.html ...and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/5981579/Madeleine-McCanns-parents-to-trace-Victoria-Beckham-lookalike.html



184. Madeleine seen with man at petrol station in Devon - arrested (4 September 2009)   COMMENT: A fire protection officer, Jon Hazlehurst  was questioned over Madeleine McCann after being spotted in a petrol station with his step-daughter, Lauren, aged eight (Madeleine would have been six at that time). The man was traced by police, visited by police, driven to Kingsbridge police station and taken into custody. The witness had noted down Mr Hazelhurst's car registration plate and contacted the police. Mr Hazlehurst said: “I was surprised more than anything. I thought it was…a prank, before I realised that they were quite serious. The police were very polite and I understood that they had to follow up the lead, even if it didn't come to anything”. See:




185. Madeleine is alive but being kept in an underground lair within a few miles of Praia da Luz (September 2009)  COMMENT: In 2009, the world heard the extraordinary story of Natasha Kampusch, from Austria - the young girl kept captive for years by a paedophile, until she escaped from his clutches at the age of 18. A similar story of a paedophile keeping his victims locked up involved Fritzl from Germany. Later, Jaycee Lee Dugard, who had been abducted by a paedophile from a bus stop in the U.S. at the age of 11, was found alive and rescued at the age of 29. When these stories began to receive publicity, the McCann Team quickly capitalised on them. Their lead detective at the time, Dave Edgar, exploited these news stories in the Belfast Telegraph and the Independent, stating that his new theory was that Madeleine was likewise being held in an ‘underground lair’ within a few miles of Praia da Luz. This was purely for the press - in order to maintain public perception that Madeleine had really been abducted. Whilst professing that they believed that Madeleine could be hidden near Praia da Luz, the McCann Team made no effort whatsoever to initiate any official or unofficial search for such a lair.



186. Madeleine seen in a Swedish photograph (10 October 2009) COMMENT: This story was first brought to the British public by Antonella Lazzeri of the Sun, which has produced many of the most absurd stories about  alleged Madeleine ‘sightings’. A girl was photographed in Sweden, with claims that ‘after computer-matching’, she could be Madeleine. She was seen at a car show, and was said to have an ‘identical jawline’ and ‘eyes the same colour as Madeleine’. The photo appeared on a website, after which Swedish police were ‘inundated’ with calls from the public, some of them saying they had seen Madeleine at the car show, where she was heard to speak in English. ‘Face-mapping technology’ used by British police was said to have identified the girl as a possible match. Madeleine’s parents Kate asked for ‘an urgent investigation’. The McCanns’ official spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Kate and Gerry are liaising with the relevant authorities”. This excellent website carries this Swedish story:




187. Madeleine was seen on TV at a school concert in Canada (5 March 2010) COMMENT: The continued appearance of Madeleine McCann’s appealing photograph in newspapers around the world led to an extraordinary incident in Canada. Distressed viewers inundated a Canadian TV station with calls after a blonde girl looking identical to Madeleine was shown singing with a school choir on a news show. The Canadian police had to contact the school and carry out checks to make sure the girl was not Madeleine.  See: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/124974/MADDIE-SEEN-ALIVE-ON-TV



188. Madeleine was seen in Dubai (20 January 2011)  COMMENT: Madeleine was reported to have been in a Dubai shopping centre. By this time, she would have been nearly eight years old. The sighting was by ‘an unnamed 35-year-old businessman’. The man with Madeleine was said to be ‘very skinny’ with a moustache and a ‘scary appearance’ – and some commented that he looked very similar to a previous artist’s sketch of a possible suspect [see sighting No. 170, above]. He was accompanied by two women, one of whom was black and wore a veil and the other who was ‘also very thin’, according to the Sun.  See also:   http://metro.co.uk/2011/01/20/madeleine-mccann-seen-in-dubai-630478



189. Madeleine was abducted by vicious paedophiles who took her to the United States, according to  a basketball-playing Angolan amateur sleuth whose front teeth were knocked out by the paedophiles (18 February 2011)  COMMENT: The Sun headed this story: ‘Madeleine McCann is in America - and I know who took her’. This story, once again strongly promoted by the McCann Team, was based on the outrageous and completely unbelievable claims of Marcelinho Italiano, a 6’ 4”, an Angolan-born ‘amateur detective’. He claimed that in the course of his sleuthing in Portugal, he had contacted a group of vicious paedophiles. This brutal group - who, he said, had knocked out two of his teeth in the course of his sleuthing - had supposedly spirited Madeleine away to the U.S., where they were holding her. Italiano claimed he had to flee Portugal and had gone to ground in  Spain in fear for his life. However, when the story broke, a search on the internet soon located him. His name came up as a regular member of a team playing in a Spanish basketball league. Once again, nothing came of this story, which appeared to have been manufactured by the Sun with the help of ex-pat Olive Press editor, Jon Clarke.




190. Madeleine was seen in India (29 June 2011):  COMMENT: The alleged sighting of Madeleine was made by a British woman on holiday in Jammu & Kashmir, in the northern Indian Himalayas. She raised concerns with other tourists, one of whom, an American, was so sure the girl was Madeleine that he tried to snatch her from the couple she was with. The parents, a French woman and her Belgian husband, were spoken to by the police who insisted they produced their passports. A spokesman for Leh police told the Chandigarh Tribune: “It all depends now on the evidence like DNA for which we need help from Madeleine's parents and the British police”. The McCanns’ PR spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said: “We remain grateful for people's vigilance around the world. Madeleine is still out there and the search for her very much continues”. This was another Sun story, also reported in the Daily Mail:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2019698/Madeleine-McCann-Hopes-dashed-sighting-India.html#ixzz4mXTqmWYV



191. A drunk gypsy told British paedophile Raymond Hewlett that he organised Madeleine’s abduction; Hewlett then wrote a letter on his death-bed to his long-estranged son Wayne, who promptly burnt the letter and then told the Sun all about it (1 September 2011)  COMMENT: Many rate this as the most preposterous story of them all. Raymond Hewlett (see sighting No. 182 above) died in December 2010. He had been estranged from his son Wayne for more than 20 years, because his son had turned against him after learning of his sexual abuse of young children. The story Wayne told to the McCann Team and to the Sun was a strange one. He claimed that a ‘mystery man’ had travelled from Germany with a letter his father had written to him on his death-bed. In this letter, Wayne said, his father explained how he had got to know the leader of a criminal gypsy gang. One evening, they had both had a lot to drink, and the gypsy gang leader had confessed that he and his gang had abducted Madeleine and handed her to a wealthy North African family for money. In the letter, he identified the gypsy gang leader by name. Wayne said he had been upset by the letter and burnt it. However, having burnt it, he apparently then approached either the McCann Team, or the Sun directly, with his story. He could not now remember the name of the gang leader. Despite the obvious unsoundness of the story and the fact that Wayne could not remember even the name of the alleged gypsy gang leader, the Sun put this ridiculous story on their front page - and reported that the British police were taking his information seriously.  Nothing ever came of it.     



192. Madeleine was abducted to Brazil (31 August 2012) COMMENT: Pictures appeared in several newspapers of a young white girl who looked vaguely like Madeleine, in a crowd of people leaving a plane in Brazil. Who developed this story is not clear. But an alert Madeleine McCann researcher, known on the internet as ‘Reggie Dunlop,’ matched the photo of the crowd leaving the plane with a photograph of people seen leaving a plane in Ibiza, several years previously. The photo had been ‘reversed’ (left-to-right) in the newspaper pictures. Whoever developed this story for the press was engaged in a very deliberate deception of the press and the public. 



193. Madeleine was seen in a car leaving a campsite with a Swiss family (9 May 2012) COMMENT: See:




194. Rose Johnson saw Madeleine playing on Penoncillo beach, Spain (3 May 2012)  COMMENT: This was yet one more absurd story reported by the ever-dutiful Jon Clarke, Olive Press Editor. He reported in May 2012 that an ex-pat pensioner, Rose Johnson, believed she had seen ‘eight-year-old Maddie’ playing outside Merendero restaurant on Penoncillo beach, between Nerja and Torrox, the previous summer (2011). She had said: “We were quite taken aback…this Maddie look-a-like walked off the beach and joined a table of what we would describe as a party of Spanish people or similar. They were completely different to her. The whole family was dark skinned, whereas she had fair hair and pale skin and obviously was northern European. It was very, very strange. She was about eight and seemed really airy-fairy, in a world of her own”. Clarke also claimed that Portuguese police, just a fortnight previously, had asked their Spanish counterparts to investigate other sightings in Nerja, and that Rose Johnson had only spoken after reading an Olive Press article. A lady called Karen commented in the Olive Press article, claiming she had seen Madeleine on 6 May 2007 (three days after she was reported missing) “with a family in Cabopino Campsite, near Marbellam who had a dark blue people carrier. Clarke responded: “Hi Karen, we would love to talk to you about this…we have now had at least half a dozen very good ‘sightings’ of Maddie on the Costa del Sol…I really hope somebody can produce the killer fact! Give our newsdesk a call”.  See:




195. Madeleine spotted in Queenstown, New Zealand on New Year’s Eve, 2012   COMMENT:  A girl was spotted in Queenstown on New Year’s Eve by a retailer. A police investigation began, which discovered that the girl had once previously been identified as Madeleine McCann. See:


 

196. New Zealand school pupil ‘frequently mistaken for Madeleine’ given DNA test (7 February 2013) COMMENT: A New Zealand schoolgirl repeatedly mistaken for missing Madeleine McCann had to give police a DNA sample so that Scotland Yard could confirm that she is not the youngster. Several New Zealanders had thought she was missing Madeleine McCann, who was said to have a mark on her right eye similar to the distinctive one on the British girl's iris.                                See:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2274826/Madeleine-McCann-New-Zealand-girl-DNA-sample-prove-missing-Maddie.html#ixzz4mq6RAjwd



197. Madeleine may have been snatched by six people seen in a white van (2014) COMMENT: This was a story possibly leaked by Scotland Yard’s investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann - Operation Grange. It was claimed that Scotland Yard detectives were trying to trace six people, thought to be British, who had used a white van in Praia da Luz at the time the McCanns were in Praia da Luz. There was nothing about it in the Portuguese Police files, and no more has been heard about this since. But, again, it made for a good headline.  



198. Skeltal remains of a fair-haired young girl, found in a suitcase in Australia, ‘could be Madeleine’ (26 July, 2015)  COMMENT: A suitcase containing the skeletal remains of a fair-haired young girl was discovered near a motorway in Wynarka, near Adelaide. Pathologists said she would have died in 2007. There was speculation that the body was Madeleine’s after a police spokesman said that the remains did not match descriptions of any missing children in Australia. But after forensic examination, the DNA did not match Madeleine’s,



199. Former Scotland Yard detective Colin Sutton says that ‘Madeleine was stolen to order for a wealthy North African family who wanted a white child’ (April 2017)  COMMENT: This story appeared just two weeks before the 10th anniversary of Madeleine being reported missing, as the British media geared up for another frenzy of anniversary articles. According to the Press Association, former Met Police Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton, who had been to Praia da Luz several times for various newspapers, the most likely hypothesis for what happened to Madeleine McCann was that she had been “stolen to order by slave traders or people traffickers and smuggled into Africa for a rich family who wanted a white child”. A Daily Mirror article claimed that “Gangs are thought to sell children to rich Middle Eastern families while operating out of Mauritania, West Africa”.



200. False claims made by ‘psychics’ and mediums   It is estimated that thousands of assorted mediums, psychics, dream interpreters and others, who claimed knowledge of what happened to Madeleine, contacted the police or the McCanns with their ideas, impressions and theories. Mostly these were vague, e.g. “I see a white cottage on a hillside” or “I see a boat on the sea”. Tens of thousands of valuable police hours were wasted investigating this nonsense. These  mediums and mystics just relied  on their vague impressions and ideas, because no two of them were ever the same.  .        



If you’ve found this leaflet of interest, please pass it on to those you know  >>>   thank you





Published by ‘The Madeleine McCann Research Group’, 14 July 2017.   Further reading/watching:



Recommended discussion forum   >>>   http://jillhavern.forumotion.net/      

Recommended internet library       >>>   www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk








Watch the Portuguese detective’s documentary:    www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxGhlYTNisw




Watch Richard Hall’s five Madeleine McCann films  >>  



1. True Story of Madeleine McCann ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIjPcvmVzUo

2. The Phantoms ------------------------------- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL0-ePd3FCU

3. When Madeleine Died? ------------------- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70oo2-Sj7to949

4. McCanns’ Embedded Confessions
----- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slziMpXYjJo&t=59s

5. Madeleine: Why The Cover-Up?
------- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQgmtrOeDLM